


Of Glories Past and Present

by Tamoline



Category: Shadowrun: Dragonfall
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-23 07:18:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8318875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tamoline/pseuds/Tamoline
Summary: It's been two years since the events of the game. It's been two years since the horrors under the manor were defeated. It's been two years since Glory walked out of Poplar's life.
She hasn't seen her since. Until now.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gayporwave](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayporwave/gifts).



Poplar was throwing popcorn at the trid - it was Ghoul Kitchen, it deserved it - when a drone whirred into view, Blitz’s voice crackling from it.

“Hey, boss. Sorry to interrupt your viewing pleasure-“

“Where do you even find this drek?” Poplar interrupted, throwing some popcorn at the drone for good measure, ignoring whatever point he was no doubt trying to make. Because, seriously, there was no way anyone should be able to make cannibalism look this delicious.

Or maybe it was just a sign that it had been entirely too long since she’d had anything better than low grade soymeat.

“Only for you would I trawl the darkest depths of the dingiest BBSs to find such bounty.”

“Thanks,” she said sarcastically.

The buzzer from the door echoed through the room.

“Anyway, to my point - there’s someone at the door,” he said hurriedly.

“Nice timing there.”

“You probably want to answer it personally,’ he said, ignoring the commentary.

There was something in his voice that made her roll to her feet without a further question, something honed in the runs they’ve done together, the same instinct that could cause her to be already diving to the floor when he’d shout duck.

It didn’t stop her from concentrating upon mystic formulae, calling crackling energy to her fingertips as she approached the door of course. She might trust Blitz, but she wasn’t stupid. She flicked on the door vid control.

Glory was standing outside the door, as silently as when she had left. Granted the silence when she had left had more been the ringing of the ears after a nuclear explosion - *mostly* metaphorical - and now the silence was because Blitz still hadn’t gotten around to fixing the sound on the control, but…

It was Glory, and Poplar really didn’t know how to feel about that. Apart from being amazingly tempted to zap Blitz so hard the next time she saw him that his ridiculous hair would never recover.

So she did what she tended to do whenever the situation was uncertain and dived straight in. 

Buzzing the door open, there was no immediate rush of goons, nor any gunfire or unwelcome magical intrusion. Always a good sign. 

She stuck her head out. “Glory?” she asked.

Glory… *smiled* at her. And not one of the slight ones that she’d occasionally started giving towards the end. She showed *teeth*, and not in a threatening way. “Poplar,” she said, raising a hand. Not extending it - given her mechanical arms with associated razor sharp claws, that would probably be more threat than greeting - but raising it. “Glad to see I’ve got the right place.”

Okay, this was just too weird. She concentrated for a moment and assensed her. Her astral signature was… a lot more whole than the last time she’d seen her, thin traceries of the spirit that had bonded with her had now integrated with the tatters of her essence, binding them into - if thin - still a whole.

But it was still her.

“Poplar?” Glory repeated, smile fading.

Poplar jerked, forcing a smile onto her face. “Hi! Glory!” she said. “Glad to see you! Been a while, hasn’t it?” She stepped back from the door, ushering her in. “Welcome back.”

* * * * * *

Poplar sat back on the couch, watching the show unfold. In front of her Blitz was carrying on like a one man entertainment suite, explaining what’d happened since Glory saw them last, with voices and buzzes and other electronic noises, like between he and his drone, he could carry the conversation for all of them. He’d broken out the bottle of real scotch he’d ‘liberated’ from some corp exec’s apartment several runs ago, offered it around even, but Poplar’d stuck to the bottle of synthohol that she had clasped in her hand.

To do anything else might have made this feel more real than it already did, and that was the last thing Poplar needed right now.

Eiger sat down next to her, the couch creaking in protest of her bulk. “Glory,” she said during a lull in Blitz’s babble, grinning around her tusks. “Good to see you. Been a while.”

“Glad to see you’re still in one piece.”

Eiger shrugged. “A few new scars. A few new pieces of chrome. You know how it is.” Then she asked the question that had been burning through Poplar’s mind ever since Glory’d arrived, the question she’d been unable to verbalise. “Sticking around or just visiting?”

Glory’s eyes flickered towards Poplar then back again. “Thought I’d see how things go.”

Great. Uncertainty. Just what she needed right at the moment. Nothing that left her, nothing that she ever left, ever came back whole. Her family. Autumn. Her old team. The Kreuzbasar.

Nothing.

She’d thought that - somehow - Monica had been an exception when she’d reached out after the run that had destroyed her old team. And look how that had turned out.

She couldn’t - couldn’t afford to - believe that Glory might be an exception to that rule. She’d leave again, or- or-

She’d leave again.

“Well, we’ve got a run coming up in a few days, if you’d be up for that,” Blitz said, then winked at Poplar. “Right, boss?”

Glory’s metal glinted in the light, framing her in the light like an ethereal killing angel, defying Poplar to deny Blitz’s suggestion, despite the sudden chill in her stomach.

Caught, Poplar gave a rictus of a grin. “Sure,” she said. “Be great to have you along. Just like old times.”

She really thought she’d been over this.

Wonderful. Just wonderful.

* * * * * *

“Thought you’d have been a little happier to see Glory back, boss,” Blitz said via the medium of his drone.

Poplar glared at the intruder into her room. “If you’re not careful, I really will fry that thing one of these days. And don’t think that group funds will pay for its repair.”

“Eh,” Blitz said, seemingly completely unfazed by the threat.

“And *some* of us are trying to get to sleep,” she said, grabbing a soft pillow - real fabric and all, only a few bloodstains - that she’d pilfered on a run from some exec’s bedroom. Whether that was to bury her head in it or to throw at the drone, she hadn’t quite decided yet.

“Eh,” Blitz repeated. “So?”

“So what.”

“So what’s with the cold front towards all things bright and Glory-ous?”

“What do you mean?” Poplar asked, opting for just trying to shut him down. Just because she hadn’t behaved according to whatever demented romantic fantasies he’d concocted around their reunion, it didn’t mean that anything was wrong.

“Oh, come on, boss. I noticed. Eiger noticed. Hell, I think the ice queen herself noticed.”

“That’s not fair!” she snapped. “Don’t call her that!” Electricity actually did crackle around her clenched fist at that.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Blitz said in what he obviously hoped was a calming tone of voice, the drone backing away cautiously as he did so. “Sorry. You know I meant that in a purely affectionate kind of way.”

Poplar took a breath and with a conscious effort dispersed the magic she’d gathered. “You really think she… thought something was off?”

He paused, the only noise the humming from the drone’s motors. “It’s a little hard to tell with her, but… I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Ugh,” she said. “Fine. I’ll be nicer. Tomorrow. You are way too invested in this, you know?”

“You know me, boss. Living vicariously through others is kind of my thing.”

She resisted the urge to make a comment about how blowing way past just not knowing when to let go of a girl was also kind of his thing and rolled over instead. “Fine,” she said. “Piece said. Now let me get some sleep.”

“Night-night, boss,” he said and the drone whirred away.

* * * * * *

Poplar looked in the fridge. Fake eggs, fake meat, fake vegetables. 

Ugh.

So breakfast as per usual, then. She got the ingredients out and started prep. Soon enough smells - she couldn’t in all honesty call them delicious - started filling the kitchen area, and beyond.

“You cook now?” Glory’s voice asked from out of nowhere, making Poplar jump.

Ah, yes, that would be something not quite normal.

She had obviously just risen from the couch where she’d spent last night, tousled and rumpled and far too attractive in the most dangerous of ways. Her shirt was pulled up a little, exposing pale flesh contrasted with smooth cyberware, which did nothing for Poplar’s pulse. Also she was smirking just a little, which didn’t exactly help either.

Poplar blinked a little and replied, after having left it a little too long. Nice, she thought. She could do this. “Oh, I forgot you weren’t there to see how kitchen duties got sorted out after,” she made a gesture, not quite wanting to say Ansel’s name, even after two years. “It turns out I had the winning combination of being least awful in the kitchen combined with enough drive to actually get it done.” She offered her a smile, briefly pointing at her with the spatular. “Unless you’re minded to think that you can do better?”

Glory advanced smoothly, giving Poplar just enough time to think that she may mauve made a strategic error before she was into the kitchen area and far too close to Poplar, brushing her as she leaned over the pan. There was an incongruous smell of honeysuckle in the air as she did so. Real honeysuckle at that. Poplar wasn’t certain whether it might be some kind of high end perfume, an implant she’d gotten to hide the more usual smells of cyberware or even a side effect of her bonding with the spirit of Feuerstalle.

“What even is this?” Glory asked after she’d finished inspecting the pan’s contents.

Poplar smiled helplessly. “Whatever we had leftover in the fridge?”

“Huh,” Glory said, consideringly. “This really the best the local area has to offer?”

Poplar lost her smile. “Not much on offer since we lost the Kreuzbasar,” she said. It was still painful just thinking about it. They’d lost far too many good people when corp fire teams had invaded. The official story had been that they’d been in hot pursuit of a terrorist and the ‘low life’ of the area had opened fire, but well. The corp news only ever reported what was convenient for them.

Maybe if they hadn’t been on a run at the time, they could have made a difference.

Maybe.

But by the time they’d gotten back, what had been Ansel’s shop had been a smouldering ruin, much like much of the rest of the Kreuzbasar. And now? Now it was shiny new corp housing and corp facilities, part of the ‘gentrification’ of Berlin.

“Not as much gets here as it used to,” she said shortly.

Glory looked at her up at her, still far too close, like she was just on the verge of saying something… and then Blitz burst into the room.

“I thought we agreed that you weren’t going to burn trash inside the base anymore,” he said cheerfully as Glory took a step backwards.

Poplar didn’t know whether to bless or curse his interruption, so she settled for flicking her spatula at him. “Begone, pest, if you actually want to have anything to eat this morning.”

He made a face. “If you can really call that food.”

“Give me his share if he doesn’t want it,” Eiger said as she advanced into the room, hair wet, towel around her neck.

“Now hang on,” Blitz said. “Let’s not be hasty…”

Glory was standing in the corner of the kitchen area, looking blank-facedly upon the squabble. Poplar took pity on her.

“They’re not usually that bad, honestly” she said. “I think they’re trying to impress you.”

“Oh,” she said. “Is that what they’re trying to do?”

Poplar looked twice before deciding that, yes, Glory was being dry at her, then swore as the mess in the pan started to burn.

“Well done,” Blitz called and if she hadn’t been busy trying to save breakfast, she would totally have flipped him off.

* * * * * *

The rest of the day went by fairly quickly. Much of it was spent doing final prep for the run tomorrow - gathering a few last supplies, a final quick fly-by recce on the lab they were due to hit and a final run through of the plan and contingencies. Glory didn’t quite slip right back in… but it didn’t take long for them to file her rough edges off.

In theory, at least. They’d have to wait until the run until they saw how well they all still worked together.

That night, Poplar lay in her bed, looking up at the ceiling, unable to sleep. She couldn’t help the feeling that something was going go wrong, going through the plan over and over, looking for holes, searching for ways for Murphy’s law to bite them in the butt.

What would Monica have done, she couldn’t help thinking, no matter how much she tried not to. No matter how much she hadn’t even consciously done that for, for almost two years, at least.

Finally, she pushed herself up and pulled on some light clothing to go for a run. Maybe some exercise would tire her out enough so that she could sleep. She quietly opened her bedroom door and slipped into the living room.

“Can’t sleep?” Glory asked from the direction of the couch. With a click, the trid turned on, illuminating the living area in ghostly light.

Poplar froze. “Sorry if I disturbed you.” She snorted. “Sleep is the third most important thing to a successful run, after all.”

“After ammo and trid, of course,” Glory said wryly, then paused. “According to Monica used to say at least,” she continued more quietly. “I haven’t thought about that for a long time.”

“I haven’t been able to get her out of my head all night.”

Glory studied her. “Anything I should know about this run?”

Poplar blinked. “No! No! God, no! As far as I’m aware, this is not a highly dubious run to investigate a threat to the very existence of what remains of the F-State.” She snorted bitterly. “And anyone who’d want to would have to battle it out with Lofwyr for the honour, anyway.”

“So what are you worried about?”

“Nothing? Nothing.”

Glory rolled her eyes. “You only can’t sleep when you’re worried about a run. The attack on Apex, the final assault on the manor, the run against Aztechnology… It’s not hard to piece together that pattern.”

Poplar flushed even as she couldn’t quite help feeling pleased. “You noticed?”

Glory glanced away then back again. “You made it hard not to notice you, with your stubborn insistence on breaking down all my barriers. No matter what I had to say on the matter.”

It was Poplar’s turn to look away. “Sorry about that,” she muttered. It hadn’t been her finest hour. Flung into a city with which she only had the barest familiarity, with a team she didn’t know, at least one of which didn’t seem to trust her… She had looked for a measure of control wherever she could find it. Even if it had meant demanding answers to questions she’d had no right to ask. And, well, maybe she’d wanted to know more about Glory in particular.

“Don’t be,” Glory said, sounding closer. When Poplar looked back at her, she’d gotten up from the couch, was only a few metres away, the scent of honeysuckle filling the air, a totally unfamiliar intensity in her eyes. “Without you… you forced me to stop running away from my past. If it hadn’t been for you, Harrow would still be corrupting and murdering children in Feuerstalle.”

Poplar’s breath caught in her throat at Glory’s closeness. “All’s well that ends well?” she choked out.

Glory’s tone darkened. “I wouldn’t say that.” Glory studied her up and down for a long moment and when she continued, she sounded cautious, almost pensive. “You haven’t asked about what I’ve been doing. I’d expected a barrage of questions before I could even step in the door.”

“Sorry?”

“You’re spending a lot of time apologising,” Glory said, looking faintly amused before flattening her expression. “I came back because I wanted to know.”

Poplar made an inquisitive expression. “Know what?”

Glory moved her head closer, her lips closer to Poplar’s, slowly enough that Poplar could move out of the way if she wanted to, if she could bring herself to, so slowly that it felt like an inevitability. “This,” she said, her breath ghosting against Poplar’s lips before she closed the gap.

It was electrifying. Poplar found herself pushing back before she knew what she was doing, hands fisting in Glory’s long hair. She felt the chill press of Glory’s hands and arms against her back, protecting her with just the right hint of potential violence.

It had been everything that she’d dreamed of, back in the day. It was everything that she’d tried to forget ever since Glory’d left.

The thought was enough to shock her free of the haze Glory’s lips had left her in. She pushed away and, after a moment, Glory released her.

“I’m sorry,” Poplar said, ducking away, almost running towards the front door. “I can’t do this.”

She fled out into the darkness.

* * * * * *

“Glory, you stay with Blitz. Eiger, you’re with me,” Poplar said as Blitz plugged himself into the Matrix port, causing electronic alarms to propagate throughout the system, doubtless summoning the guards that had, up until now, been unaware of their presence.

Eiger gave her a questioning look as they moved back through the office, leapfrogging from cover to cover. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to. She and Eiger were playing aggressive defence, the people who would encounter any opposition first, most likely to get up close and personal. The perfect place for Glory to be, with her inhuman speed and claws, instead of lurking back at the second line with Blitz, making sure that anyone who managed to bypass them didn’t find a helpless target.

Eiger, with rifle and shotgun, could do well in either role, but…

But.

Aggressive defence also had much lower margin of error - milliseconds the way that Glory liked to play - and she and Glory hadn’t worked together in years. Not that the contract shadow runner they’d had for the job before Glory turned up would have been any better in that way…

But she wouldn’t have cared so much.

Movement flickered in the halls ahead and she dived for cover behind a sculpture. She brought formulae to mind and sent crackling energy down the hall. From behind and to the side, there was a crack from Eiger’s rifle. Then gunfire was returned and battle was joined.

* * * * * *

The fight could be going better, Poplar reflected as bullets stitched the wall above her head, sweat dripping down her forehead, pain flaring through her side as she prepared to stick her head out again. From elsewhere in the room, the blasts of Eiger’s shotgun sounded above the chatter of small arms fire. 

Okay, it sounded like there were two groups left, trying to encircle them, get to Blitz. No one had managed it yet, but if the ones to the left advanced much further, she was going to be completely exposed.

And they’d been doing so well until that elemental had provided enough cover for the more metahuman security to get into this chamber.

She started gathering the energy for another concussive blast.

One.

Two.

Three.

She popped up and let off the blast, causing flesh to sizzle underneath untouched armour of three guards… only to be spun around by a burst of gunfire from a fourth. Armoured clothing helped, but not enough, not enough, as she slumped down to the ground, blood leaking from her body.

Drek. She really hoped that Eiger would be able to hold the line long enough for…

Long enough.

She chuckled wetly. It hurt.

She’d never thought - never even considered - that she might be the one to break this time.

Maybe this was a good thing, though.

Maybe… she thought, as everything faded to black.

* * * * * *

The scent of honeysuckle filled her nostrils, dragging her from sleep. She cracked an eye. Glory and Blitz were standing over her, with the bulk of Eiger’s back looming in the background.

Oh, right.

Drek. It was the middle of a run.

She spasmed, sending shooting pains through her side. Oh yes, that too.

“Careful, boss,” Blitz said with an artificially calm expression on his face that did little to mask the worry. “You’ve leaked an awful lot of red there.”

“Is she fit to move before any more reinforcements get here?” Eiger snapped.

Glory ghosted her hands over her body. There might have been tingles if Poplar didn’t hurt so much. There was a hiss as she injected her with something, and the pain receded a little and something stiffened under her skin.

“She’s as good as she’s going to get,” Glory said, blank-faced. “Brace yourself.”

Stars filled Poplar’s vision as Glory smoothly pulled her up, and hoisted one of Poplar’s arms over her metal and ceramic shoulders.

“Okay, people,” Eiger said. “Let’s move.”

* * * * * *

“Bed rest for the next two days,” Glory said impassively once they’d gotten back to base and Poplar had been carefully placed into her bed.

“Yeah, boss,” Blitz said, smirking. “I guess you’re gonna have two days of being waited on hand and foot by us to look forward to. Well, by some of us anyway, eh?” He yelped as Eiger casually smacked him.

“Thanks,” Poplar said to Eiger. “Why, are you volunteering?” she asked Blitz.

Blitz grunted noncommittally. “I’ll take care of your trash trid needs?” he offered.

“I guess that’s one essential need taken care of.” Poplar paused. “So who’s going to care of the food?”

Blitz groaned loudly. “Take out?” he said hopefully.

“I’ll take care of cooking,” Glory said. “If the others take care of the rest of it.”

Blitz and Eiger exchanged glances. “Sounds good,” Eiger said. “Didn’t want to subject the rest of you to my cooking. Definitely didn’t want to have the shits for the next week from Blitz’s.”

“Hey,” Blitz said in a faux-offended tone, but otherwise didn’t seem overly bothered.

“Time to let her have some rest,” Glory said, interrupting the comedy double act, and the three started shuffling out of her room.

“Glory,” Poplar said. “Can I talk with you a moment? Privately,” she added for the benefit of Blitz, who waggled his eyebrows at her.

Glory paused, then nodded and shut the door after Eiger and Blitz before turning around, her expression still as blank as it had been since… since last night.

“Sorry,” she said. “About last night and… about everything since you came back, really.” She flushed. “I was scared, scared that I’d feel any more for you than I already did, and that you’d just leave again. Or, worse, die.” She giggled, ignoring the flare of pain in her side. “Which seems a little ridiculous, in hindsight. It isn’t as though any of us are exactly going to live forever. So, sorry?”

Glory approached silently, almost sinuously, her expression changing from blank to something softer if still indecipherable. “You were the first person to make me feel since Harrow,” she said. “I didn’t know what it meant, wasn’t sure if what I was feeling was… I needed time to figure it out for myself, away from you.” One corner of her mouth upturned slightly. “Still not entirely sure. But I’m willing to make a guess?” She stopped just in front of the bed, hovering almost hesitantly.

Poplar cracked a smile. “If you’re expecting a kiss, you’d make it a lot less painful if you bent down here.” And she did, and it was just as electric as last time.

After it was over, Glory stood up again, looking almost shy. “Now get some sleep,” she said and gently stroked Poplar’s forehead.

“Hah,” Poplar said, swollen lipped. “Like it’s going to be that easy. Pull up a chair.” Glory opened her mouth to protest, but Poplar interrupted, getting there first. “You’ve got two years to fill me in on. Did you really think you were going to escape that forever?”

Glory looked at her for a long moment, then smiled and shook her head. “I guess not.”

“Good,” Poplar definitively. “First - a spoiler. Tell me that you managed to get Harrow after all of that.”

Glory picked up chair, carried it over to in front of the bed and sat down on it. “It didn’t turn out to be quite that simple…” she started.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Trail of Embers](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10513119) by [MirrorMystic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MirrorMystic/pseuds/MirrorMystic)




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